"Nobody Edits Me"

12.26.12

Bill O'Reilly is Best

Quotes like these are why, despite it all, I remain a fan of Fox News' resident grumpy old man.

Asked if he might write 1,000 words a day, an honorable pace, he was contemptuous: “I can write 1,000 words in my sleep.” His secret is that years in television have taught him to “write for the ear, not for the eye.” He writes as if speaking a television documentary, cutting down any detail that might slow a furious page-turning pace.

And how is he to edit? Mr. O’Reilly looked up from his autographs for a second and flashed a stiletto stare from his blue eyes. “Nobody edits me,” he said flatly. ...

“I work harder now than I have ever worked in my life, which is kind of insane,” Mr. O’Reilly acknowledged. Then there is the fact that he is excited about his work. He would not reveal the subject of the coming book, but with characteristic modesty he predicted, it “will be a blockbuster of epic proportions.”